Peter Burleigh to return as interim US envoy to India

New Delhi
13 June 2011

Albert Peter Burleigh is expected to succeed Tim Roemer as the interim
ambassador of the United States to India.

Burleigh (69) is no stranger to India, having temporarily served as charge d'affaires at
the US embassy in New Delhi from April to July 2009, after David Mulford completed his
tenure as ambassador here and before Tim Roemer took up his current position.

Roemer resigned on April 28, citing personal, professional and family considerations. He
is expected to leave India by the end of June.

Although the US embassy did not offer a comment, Burleigh is expected to arrive in New
Delhi in the last week of this month and assume temporary charge till the US
Government has nominated him or another individual as the US ambassador to India in
succession to Roemer and the US Senate has confirmed the nomination.

Burleigh served as the US deputy representative to the United Nations from August 1997
to December 1999. Immediately prior to that, he served as the US ambassador to Sri
Lanka and Maldives between 1995 and 1997.

Born on 7 March 1942, Burleigh joined the US foreign service in 1967, after spending a
year as a Fulbright scholar in Nepal. He served in the Peace Corps in Nepal between
1963 and 1965, doing community development work in that country.

In his long career Burleigh served in the US embassies in Nepal and India, too.

Burleigh is a consultant for the National Intelligence Council (NIC) in Washington. Since
2006, he has been a consultant to the Carter Centre in Atlanta. In March 2007 he became
a director of the Kathmandu Valley Preservation Trust. He is fluent in Bengali, Hindi,
Nepali, and Sinhalese.

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